Marginal damage of methane emissions: Ozone impacts on agriculture

Methane directly contributes to air pollution, as an ozone precursor, and to climate change, generating physical and economic damages to different systems, namely agriculture, vegetation, energy, human health, or biodiversity. The methane-related damages to climate, measured as the Social Cost of Methane, and to human health have been analyzed by different studies and considered by government rulemaking in the last decades, but the ozone-related damages to crop revenues associated to methane emissions have not been incorporated to policy agenda. Based on an subsequent connection of the Global Change Analysis Model and the TM5 FASST Scenario Screening Tool, we estimate that global marginal agricultural damages range from ~432 to 556 $2010/t-CH4, of which 98 $2010/t-CH4 are attributable to USA, which is the most affected region due to its role as a major crop producer, followed by China, EU-15, and India. These damages would represent 39-44% of the climate damages and 29-64% of the human health damages associated to methane emissions. The marginal damages to crop revenues calculated in this study complement the damages from methane to climate and human health, and provides valuable information to be considered in future cost-benefits analyses.

SAMPEDRO Jon;  WALDHOFF Stephanie;  SAROFIM Marcus;  VAN DINGENEN Rita; 

2023-06-26

SPRINGER

JRC123992

0924-6460 (online),   

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-022-00750-6,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123992,   

10.1007/s10640-022-00750-6 (online),